Free Levi’s, New Friends

Friday morning, I went to the Levi’s Curve ID fittings in Bryant Park. After arriving at nine a.m. and waiting in line till about eleven, I was joined in line by Nicole Poole, the author of Thrift Store Confidential; we and others near us passed a while discussing fashion and clothing, and I have to say, the lady knows what she’s talking about. Her shoes – from Housing Works, I think – were GORGEOUS. There was another girl in line with us who was bigging up the idea of shopping at Nordstrom and I loved how she kept calling it “a hidden gem.” I know she kept a blog, so if she happens to see this – hi! Comment and send me your blog’s URL!

The system the Levi’s were working under assigned a color-coded band to each “fitting period,” and I got a time at the end of the day. Which was good, as I was donating a couple of giant wardrobes to Housing Works. When I got back and got measured…

…and this is really sad…

…they did not have my size. Now, I’m not a thin girl, and I think I’ve owned up to this on a few occasions. I’m working my way toward it, but no, I’m not there yet. And yet…and yet…the entire concept behind the Levi’s Curve ID Jeans is that they’ve measured women all over the place and found ways to fit us all with jeans. I wouldn’t even have minded getting up early, if someone in the line had mentioned (or if the online materials, which I consulted I think about as closely as most of the users of this brand would check) that the jeans were only made (not in stock, not available on the day, but available in the entire range of produced sizes) up to a size that didn’t include my XL derrier.

Whatever. I met some great ladies in the line (oh – the other two I didn’t mention were a photographer/filmmaker from Ghana and a near-retiree who joined us and who I lost track of; thanks to both of you for livening up the morning!), and my younger sister got rewarded for being of a more typical physique ($59.99 jeans for fre-e-e-e-e-e if you don’t count my time!). Levi’s, you could use a bit more thoughtfulness about either your marketing or your sizing, particularly when you’re advertising a line that’s meant to take the “real woman” and her “real dimensions” into account.

Rachel writes in many genres and forms, focusing mostly on short stories and plays with speculative and science fiction themes. She has many opinions and shares them freely on Twitter (@girl_onthego). She enjoys travelling and internetting, and hopes you enjoy her writing enough to check out some of the books she has for sale.

Nyugen said, “off the top of my head, I’d say the bold curve would be someone like Beyonce or Jennifer Lopez, a demi curve would be someone like Charlize Theron, and the slight curve would be Lucy Liu.”

{sarcasm} I mean, after all, EVERYBODY knows that Asian ladies have no ass, and Blacks and Hispanics rock the ghetto booty, while white women fall somewhere in the middle. {end sarcasm}

Even the picture accompanying the article seems to encourage that assumption, with the women fitting the same general image – the blonde in the center, the women in the back looking a bit hispanic, and the woman in the front with pin-straight dark hair – though you can’t see her eyes to make the absolute determination that she’s super duper Asian.